Digital Commons Network^™

Pavement Surface Distress Detection, Assessment, And Modeling Using Geospatial Techniques, Su Zhang

Civil Engineering ETDs

Roadway pavement surface distress information is essential for effective pavement asset management, and subsequently, transportation agencies at all levels dedicate a large amount of time and money to routinely collect data on pavement surface distress conditions as the core of their asset management programs. These data are used by these agencies to make maintenance and repair decisions. Current methods for pavement surface distress evaluation are time-consuming and expensive. Geospatial technologies provide new methods for evaluating pavement surface distress condition that can supplement or substitute for currently-adopted evaluation methods. However, few previous studies have explored the utility of geospatial technologies for …

Speculations On A City For Mars, Edouard Terzis

School of Architecture - Theses

This thesis proposes the reinterpretation of architectural forms as the index of the constitution of the idea of the city. “Speculations on a City on Mars” is paradoxical in a sense as it superposes both the managerial representation of a city, that is Zoning, along with the speculative aspect of an extra-terrestrial city.

A Hybrid Dynamic System Assessment Methodology For Multi-Modal Transportation-Electrification, Thomas J.T Van Der Wardt, Amro M. Farid

Dartmouth Scholarship

In recent years, electrified transportation, be it in the form of buses, trains, or cars have become an emerging form of mobility. Electric vehicles (EVs), especially, are set to expand the amount of electric miles driven and energy consumed. Nevertheless, the question remains as to whether EVs will be technically feasible within infrastructure systems. Fundamentally, EVs interact with three interconnected systems: the (physical) transportation system, the electric power grid, and their supporting information systems. Coupling of the two physical systems essentially forms a nexus, the transportation-electricity nexus (TEN). This paper presents a hybrid dynamic system assessment methodology for multi-modal transportation-electrification. …

The Journey Of A Polymer Producer To Support Customers E&L Needs, Jerome Vachon

Single-use Technologies II: Bridging Polymer Science to Biotechnology Applications

In the view of SABIC’s ambitions to grow in the Healthcare applications market, a clear understanding of customers’ challenges and problems with respect to Extractables and Leachables is crucial. In addition to ensuring high quality products and compliance with standard regulations, material suppliers must also have a deep knowledge of their product chemistries for specific healthcare applications. Responding to our customers’ needs when performing their own material toxicological assessment, SABIC has continued to develop and share deeper insights into E&L. A growing involvement of SABIC to develop a true E&L knowledge base, from Research to Marketing, has thus been taking …

Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (Lcsa) Of Polymer-Based Piping For Plumbing Applications, Andy J. Rivas Bolivar

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Water conveyance systems play a critical role in modern developed areas. Polymer pipes have been used for about a century, and their convenient physical properties have positioned polymers as the leading material in the piping industry. Having such influence in the market means that changes in current material selection and manufacturing could lead to significant reductions in the footprint associated with their products. Currently, there are no comparative lifecycle assessments that evaluate the different polymer selections commercially available, which makes it hard to determine what products have the least impact on the environment. Understanding how such impacts are relative to …

Toward Measuring Network Aesthetics Based On Symmetry, Zengqiang Chen, Matthias Dehmer, Frank Emmert-Streib, Abbe Mowshowitz, Yongtang Shi

Publications and Research

In this exploratory paper, we discuss quantitative graph-theoretical measures of network aesthetics. Related work in this area has typically focused on geometrical features (e.g., line crossings or edge bendiness) of drawings or visual representations of graphs which purportedly affect an observer’s perception. Here we take a very different approach, abandoning reliance on geometrical properties, and apply information-theoretic measures to abstract graphs and networks directly (rather than to their visual representaions) as a means of capturing classical appreciation of structural symmetry. Examples are used solely to motivate the approach to measurement, and to elucidate our symmetry-based mathematical theory of network aesthetics.

Vulnerability Of Coastal Connecticut To Sea Level Rise: Land Inundation And Impacts To Residential Property, Rebecca Andreucci, Can B. Aktas

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Vulnerability indices at the global or national scales require considerable data aggregation where local economic and social impacts remain unnoticed. The goal of this study was to analyze the extent of inundated land from sea level rise and its economic impacts to residential property in coastal communities. Geographic data were integrated with economic and social data at parcel level resolution through GIS. Cumulative land inundation in seven coastal municipalities was calculated as 15 and 25 km², while direct economic costs to residential property was estimated to be $1.3 billion and $2.2 billion for 1 and 2 m sea …

Gis Internship At Tighe And Bond, Yuanting Qu M.S.

Sustainability and Social Justice

I started working as GIS Intern at Tighe and Bond Worcester Office on May 11, 2016. I was given a multitude of civil engineering related projects to edit, verify, do analysis and process data. I was able to apply my computer programming skills to help the GIS team develop a useful script tool set that will improve efficiency work. This internship provided me insight into how GIS operate as a part of engineering project on a day-to-day basis. Working background, my responsibilities and what I have learned from this internship is discussed in this report.

Development Of A Multiband Remote Sensing System For Determination Of Unsaturated Soil Properties, Cyrus D. Garner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A multiband system including active microwave sensing and visible-near infrared reflectance spectroscopy was developed to measure unsaturated soil properties in both field and laboratory environments. Remote measurements of soil volumetric water content (θv), soil water matric potential (ψ), and soil index properties (liquid limit [LL], plastic limit [PL], and clay fraction [CF]) were conducted. Field-based measurement of θv was conducted using a ground-based radar system and field measurements within 10 percentage points of measurements acquired with traditional sampling techniques were obtained. Laboratory-based, visible and near infrared spectroscopy was found to be capable of obtaining empirical, soil specific regression functions (partial …

Genetically Engineered Organisms: Progress Or Poison, Melina Sansi

Senior Theses

Genetically engineered organisms are a part of almost everything we put into our bodies. More than any other time in history, humans are manipulating plants and organisms on an advanced level. Scientists are able to genetically alter food so that it precisely fills a specific dietary need, or increase crop yields to feed the growing global population expected to reach 9 billion people by the year 2050. Currently 250 million acres worldwide are used to grow genetically modified organisms. Many consumers don’t fully understand the use and impact of genetically engineered organisms for lack of accessible and straightforward information. Federal …

Development And Degradation Analysis Of Novel Micro And Nanostructured Transition Metal Oxide (Tmo) Anodes For Aqueous Sodium Ion Batteries., Santanu Mukherjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the primary motivations driving battery technology research is the need to develop cleaner and more efficient energy storage systems. The portable electronics industry has developed exponentially, especially over the last couple of decades and therefore the importance of efficient electrochemical energy storage systems cannot be overstated. Li-ion batteries have been the predominant rechargeable energy in use, however, they have their own particular drawbacks viz. flammability of the electrolyte, expensive mining of the Li metal etc. This is where the importance of Na-ion batteries lie. This research focuses on using existing transition metal oxides (TMOs) and tuning their crystal …

Vehicle Make And Model Recognition For Intelligent Transportation Monitoring And Surveillance., Faezeh Tafazzoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vehicle Make and Model Recognition (VMMR) has evolved into a significant subject of study due to its importance in numerous Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), such as autonomous navigation, traffic analysis, traffic surveillance and security systems. A highly accurate and real-time VMMR system significantly reduces the overhead cost of resources otherwise required. The VMMR problem is a multi-class classification task with a peculiar set of issues and challenges like multiplicity, inter- and intra-make ambiguity among various vehicles makes and models, which need to be solved in an efficient and reliable manner to achieve a highly robust VMMR system. In this dissertation, …

Peer-To-Peer Carsharing: Short-Term Effects On Travel Behavior In Portland, Or, Jennifer Dill, Nathan Mcneil, Steven Howland

TREC Final Reports

Peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing is a relatively new concept in the U.S. Enabled by recent internet and mobile technology development, P2P carsharing generally involves a facilitating company connecting private vehicle owners to people who are interested in renting a vehicle. P2P carsharing has many things in common with business-to-consumer (B2C) carsharing services. Consumers join the service to rent vehicles on a short-term basis from locations dispersed throughout a certain area. Both services may allow households to reduce their private car ownership. However, P2P carsharing differs substantially from other models in that there are two distinct sets of consumers: those who rent …

2017 - The Twenty-Second Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Twenty-second Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 20, 2017. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

A Novel Approach To Complex Human Activity Recognition, Md Osman Gani

Dissertations (1934 -)

Human activity recognition is a technology that offers automatic recognition of what a person is doing with respect to body motion and function. The main goal is to recognize a person's activity using different technologies such as cameras, motion sensors, location sensors, and time. Human activity recognition is important in many areas such as pervasive computing, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, health care, health outcomes, rehabilitation engineering, occupational science, and social sciences. There are numerous ubiquitous and pervasive computing systems where users' activities play an important role. The human activity carries a lot of information about the context and helps systems …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2017, 137th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Chemistry and Physics

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Collegiate Academy: Chemistry and Physics

Biological and Medical Sciences

Aeronautics and Space Science: Poster Session

Applied Science and Technology

Maiben Memorial Lecture

Anthropology

Earth Science

Applied Science and Technology

Teaching of Science and Mathematics

Environmental Sciences

Friend of Science Award: Kacie Baum and Todd Young

Performance Study For Capillary Machine-To-Machine Networks, Maisaa Othman Albaghdadi

Theses

Communication technologies witness a wide and rapid pervasiveness of wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. It is emerging to apply for data transfer among devices without human intervention. Capillary M2M networks represent a candidate for providing reliable M2M connectivity. In this thesis, we propose a wireless network architecture that aims at supporting a wide range of M2M applications (either real-time or non-real-time) with an acceptable QoS level. The architecture uses capillary gateways to reduce the number of devices communicating directly with a cellular network such as LTE. Moreover, the proposed architecture reduces the traffic load on the cellular network by providing capillary …

Wave Energy Assessment In Southern Central Java Island And Control Method For Maximizing The Captured Power In Wave Energy Converters, Fatima Sultan Ghdayer Ali Alaryani

Theses

This thesis discusses the wave energy potential of the Indian Ocean on the south coast of Central Java Island, where no previous known similar study has been conducted. A control technique that involves a dynamic electrical model was established. The following objectives were achieved. The first was to determine the ideal location to implement wave energy conversion (WEC), and the second objective was to simulate the significant wave height by using the novel control method.

To achieve these goals, the following steps and procedures were implemented. Wave energy assessment was conducted for the Indian Ocean on the south coast of …

Influence Of Internal Variability On Population Exposure To Hydroclimatic Changes, Justin S. Mankin, Daniel Viviroli, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Radley M. Horton, Jason E. Smerdon, Noah S. Diffenbaugh

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Future freshwater supply, human water demand, and people’s exposure to water stress are subject to multiple sources of uncertainty, including unknown future pathways of fossil fuel and water consumption, and ‘irreducible’ uncertainty arising from internal climate system variability. Such internal variability can conceal forced hydroclimatic changes on multi-decadal timescales and near-continental spatial-scales. Using three projections of population growth, a large ensemble from a single Earth system model, and assuming stationary per capita water consumption, we quantify the likelihoods of future population exposure to increased hydroclimatic deficits, which we define as the average duration and magnitude by which evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation …

Refugees In Urban Environments: Social, Economic, And Infrastructure Impacts, Garrett L. Jameson

Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that in 2015 there were 21.3 million refugees worldwide; it is estimated that 1.8 million of these persons were newly displaced during 2015. As refugees leave their country to seek the protection of another nation's government, they generally flow into urban areas. The impact of this flow on cities and on the refugees, themselves, is not fully understood. This study is focused on the impact of government policy decisions on the social, legal, and economic integration of refugees within an urban environment. Investigation into this topic resulted in the development of …

Identifying Partnership Opportunities At Air Force Installations: A Geographic Information Systems Approach, Corey R. Degroot

Theses and Dissertations

The excess capacity found in the Department of Defense real property portfolio creates challenges for leaders to provide resilient installations. Combining this fact with current funding trends makes decisions on how to properly maintain infrastructure even more challenging. The Air Force Partnership Initiative provides tools for installations to leverage community capabilities and resources to achieve savings and improve quality on Air Force installations and can reduce the real property footprint. This research proposes a method for assessing the viability of a partnership between Air Force installations and their nearby communities.
This research effort created a tool capable of investigating off-base …

Poster Session 1, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

1. Sensing and Educating the Nexus to Sustain Ecosystems (SENSE): A Kentucky-West Virginia Partnership, Susan Hendricks and others, Hancock Biological Station, Murray State University
2. Using OpenNSPECT to Model Riparian Buffer Effectiveness for Mitigating Sediment Accumulation in Small Order Agricultural Streams, Lee Moser, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky
3. The Benefits of Staying Local – the Kentucky Section of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Carmen Agouridis and Michael Sama, Dept. of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky
4. Overview of Groundwater Sampling Conducted in an Unconventional Oil and Gas Play Area of eastern …

Proceedings Of 2017 Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

This symposium was planned and conducted as a part of the state water resources research institute annual program that is supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number G16AP00055 from the United States Geological Survey. The contents of this proceedings document and the views and conclusions presented at the symposium are solely the responsibility of the individual authors and presenters and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USGS or of the symposium organizers and sponsors. This publication is produced with the understanding that the United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for government purposes. Mention of trade …

A Framework For Measuring The Spatial Equity In The Distribution Of Public Transportation Benefits, Seyyed Amir Hosein Mortazavi, Meisam Akbarzadeh

Journal of Public Transportation

This paper proposes that an equitable transit system requires that the geographical distribution of transit service benefits conform to the geographical distribution of the citizens with the greatest need for public transportation. This is the essence of vertical equity. This study calculated “connectivity power,” which reflects public transit service quality in each traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in a city to indicate the amount of benefit that TAZ is receiving from the transit system. The number of carless citizens in each TAZ was also calculated as an index of need to the public transit services in that area. Conformity of need …

A New Market Segmentation Approach: Evidence From Two Canadian Cities, Dea Van Lierop, Ahmed El-Geneidy

Journal of Public Transportation

Traditionally, transit market research has categorized passengers into two distinct groups: captive riders and choice riders. Market analyses that depend on such broad categories are likely to overlook important details about the needs and desires of their customer base. This study attempts to better understand the complexities of the different groups who take transit by using information from five years of customer satisfaction questionnaires collected by two Canadian transit providers. Employing a series of clustering techniques, the analysis reveals that nine market segments are present across different modes in both transit agencies. Three different overarching groups of transit users are …

An Investigation Of The Correlation Between Mental Workload And Web User’S Interaction, Joaquim Filipe Romero

Dissertations

Mental Workload, a psychological concept, was identified as being linked with task’s and system’s performance. In the context of Human-Computer Interaction, recent research has identified Mental Workload as an important measure in the designing and evaluation of web interfaces, and as an additional and supplemental insight to typical usability evaluation methods. Simultaneously, web logs containing data related to web users’ interaction (e.g. scrolling; mouse clicks) have been proved useful in evaluating the usability of web sites by analysing the data tracked for hundreds of users. In order to study if the potential of logs of user interaction can be applied …

An Investigation Of The Correlation Between Mental Workload And Web User’S Interaction, Joaquim Filipe Romero

Dissertations

Mental Workload, a Psychology concept, was identified as being linked with task’s and system’s performance. In the context of Human-Computer Interaction, recent research has identified Mental Workload as an important measure in the designing and evaluation of web interfaces, and as an additional and supplemental insight to typical Usability evaluation methods. Simultaneously, web logs containing data related to web users’ interaction (e.g. scrolling; mouse clicks) have been proved useful in evaluating the Usability of web sites by levering the data tracked for hundreds of users. In order to study if the potential of logs of user interaction can be applied …

The Development Of A Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Wake Model For Use In Wind Farm Layout Optimization With Noise Level Constraints, Eric Blaine Tingey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on providing the means to use vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in wind farms as an alternative form of harnessing wind energy in offshore and urban environments where both wake and acoustic effects of turbines are important considerations. In order for VAWTs to be used in wind farm layout analysis and optimization, a reduced-order wake model is needed to calculate velocities around a turbine quickly and accurately. However, a VAWT wake model has not been available to accomplish this task. Using vorticity data from computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of VAWTs and cross-validated Gaussian distribution and polynomial surface …

Common Support Equipment And Its Impact On Aircraft Availability, Jason M. Leighton

Theses and Dissertations

The ability of military aircraft maintenance personnel to prepare aircraft for flight depends not only on the technical ability and availability of replacement parts, but also on access to serviceable support equipment. While the general relationship between support equipment failures and aircraft availability is understood, the struggle to quantify that relationship makes targeted support equipment replacement or quantity authorization increases difficult. Tight budgets and aging equipment further complicate the task of keeping serviceable support equipment assets in the hands of maintainers. We identify key pieces of support equipment which may affect aircraft availability and other metrics and investigate the associated …

Design Of A 3d Printable Mechanical Time Simulating Solar System Model For Use In Stem Education, Mark Bedford Moffett

Theses and Dissertations

The use of designed tools to assist with relating abstract ideas to reality is now a possibility with the use of the modern manufacturing method of 3D printing. The inner four planets’ natural orbital periods with respect to Earth were modeled in SolidWorks and then fabricated using 3D printing. A 3D printable mechanical time simulating solar system model used in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) could assist with the user’s understanding of the history of science, planetary orbital mechanics, gearing ratios, 3D printing, and systematically constructing a project using instructions. This paper describes the design of a 3D printable …